Towards a theory of entrepreneurial teams

This article examines the role of entrepreneurial teams in processes of entrepreneurial discovery. It addresses two main questions. The first investigates the implications of economic theory for the possibility of team entrepreneurship. Because leading economic theories focus almost exclusively upon individual decision-makers, we propose a broader notion of entrepreneurship that includes enterprising teams as well as individuals. We define entrepreneurship as a profit-seeking problem-solving process that takes place under conditions of structural uncertainty.The second question examines the conditions that are conducive to joint entrepreneurial action and the formation of entrepreneurial teams. We suggest that bounded structural uncertainty and perceived strong interdependence arising from common interest can jointly “prime” team entrepreneurship.     

Social Interaction: A Determinant of Entrepreneurial Team Venture Success

An important issue to explain the success of new ventures is mostly ignored by the research of entrepreneurship: the social interaction within entrepreneurial teams. The purpose of this paper is to introduce the concept of social interaction, which was originally developed for innovation teams in the field of entrepreneurship research and theory.The theoretical discussion proves if an adoption of the social interaction to the field of entrepreneurship is theoretically possible. Using the data of 159 German entrepreneurial teams, the effects of social interaction on new business success are empirically proven. The introduced measurement model, which consists of six dimensions, shows a high quality in the empirical test. The quality of the social interaction within entrepreneurial teams is crucial for the new venture success. An empirical comparison with the frequently used team conflicts confirm that the measurement of conflicts is not a sufficient substitute measurement for social interaction. Overall, the social interaction in entrepreneurial teams could be seen as an important but not only factor of business success.     

Investigating social entrepreneurship: A multidimensional model

Social entrepreneurship is an emerging area of investigation within the entrepreneurship and not-for-profit marketing literatures. A review of the literature emerging from a number of domains reveals that it is fragmented and that there is no coherent theoretical framework. In particular, current conceptualizations of social entrepreneurship fail to adequately consider the unique characteristics of social entrepreneurs and the context within which they must operate. Using grounded theory method and drawing on nine in-depth case studies of social entrepreneurial not-for-profit organizations, this paper addresses this research gap and develops a bounded multidimensional model of social entrepreneurship. Implications for social entrepreneurship theory, management practice, and policy directions are discussed.     

The interplay of entrepreneurship education and national cultures in entrepreneurial activity: a social cognitive perspective

Does entrepreneurship education result in entrepreneurial activities across national cultures? For the most part, prior research has examined the relationship between entrepreneurship education and entrepreneurial activity, using country-specific samples. However, many of these results are inconsistent. One reason for such inconsistent results may be a limitation of country-specific samples, given that they are valid in a domestic context but not generalizable. Our study addresses this limitation by using a cross-national sample of 24,457 respondents from 38 countries to examine the role of diverse national cultures. Building on the social cognitive theory, our results show that entrepreneurship education is more seminal for entrepreneurial activities that take place in countries with greater individualism, less uncertainty avoidance, and a high level of masculinity. This research presents a more complete picture of how entrepreneurship education may affect international entrepreneurship contingent upon national culture, and has implications for researchers, educators, and policy makers.     

The Social Entrepreneurship Zone

Social entrepreneurship is still in the developmental stage as a field of inquiry. In this article we introduce the concept of the social entrepreneurship zone. This new construct positions social entrepreneurship relative to the ways organizations plan to implement social change and the degrees to which they apply business practices to do so. Two new categories of organizations, social transformation entrepreneurial ventures and social improvement entrepreneurial ventures, reside in the social entrepreneurship zone. This categorization separates social entrepreneurial ventures into 2 distinct groups with their own unique set of characteristics. The social entrepreneurship zone construct should help researchers and other stakeholders better understand this emerging field so it can be further studied and developed.     

Entrepreneurs’ creativity and firm innovation: the moderating role of entrepreneurial self-efficacy

There are several studies in entrepreneurship investigating determinants of innovation outcomes in SMEs. Although entrepreneurs’ entrepreneurial creativity is often seen as a prerequisite, previous research indicates it is not an exclusive determinant of innovation. We use theoretical logics of social cognitive theory and innovation theory to develop a conceptual model of entrepreneur’s creativity, self-efficacy, and innovation outcomes. The model is then tested on a large sample of small and medium firms from two distinct economies: the United States and Slovenia. Empirical findings partially support the proposed moderation effects of entrepreneurial self-efficacy, but with the same variations between countries. The implications of these results in relation to entrepreneurship theory and practice are discussed.     

Organising new business in a turbulent context: Opportunity discovery and effectuation for IJV development in transition markets

Research on entrepreneurship has suggested entrepreneurial phenomena to take place in a wide variety of contexts that deal with new venture emergence. Opportunity discovery and effectuation are seen as the essence of entrepreneurship. The present study examines entrepreneurial behaviour in the organising of an international joint venture (IJV) in Polish transition markets. The paper aims to answer the following question: How is an international joint venture organised in turbulent context through opportunity-discovery and effectuation behaviours? Based on theoretical analysis and a longitudinal case study, we illustrate the organising of an international joint venture in transition markets through specific behaviours of opportunity discovery and effectuation. We show especially the relationship-based nature of all the behaviours. The study advances international entrepreneurship research by emphasising the intertwinedness of the entrepreneurial behaviours with the drastic developments in the transition markets and the evolution of the IJV partnership.     

Socio-cognitive traits and entrepreneurship: The moderating role of economic institutions

We examine how country-level institutional context moderates the relationship between three socio-cognitive traits—entrepreneurial self-efficacy, alertness to new business opportunities, and fear of failure—and opportunity entrepreneurship. To do this, we blend social cognitive theory (SCT) with institutional theory to develop a multi-level model of entrepreneurial entry. We merge data from the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) surveys and the Economic Freedom of the World (EFW) index for 45 countries from 2002 to 2012. Our results, which are based on a multi-level fixed-effects model, suggest that entrepreneurs' self-efficacy and alertness to new opportunities promote opportunity entrepreneurship while fear of failure discourages it. However, the strength of these relationships depends on the institutional context, with entrepreneurial self-efficacy and alertness substantially more likely to lead to new opportunity-driven ventures in countries with higher levels of economic freedom. These results provide suggestive evidence that economic freedom not only channels individual effort to productive entrepreneurial activities, but also affects the extent to which individuals' socio-cognitive resources are likely to mobilized and lead to high-growth entrepreneurship.     

Entrepreneurship as the nexus of individual and opportunity: A structuration view

We propose structuration theory as a useful lens through which to view the entrepreneurial process. Extending Shane and Venkataraman's work (Shane, S., Venkataraman, S., 2000. The promise of entrepreneurship as a field of research. Academy of Management Review 25, 217–226), entrepreneurship is presented as the nexus of opportunity and agency, whereby opportunities are not singular phenomena, but are idiosyncratic to the individual. Entrepreneurial ventures are the medium and outcome of the entrepreneurs' actions. The traditional view of entrepreneurship is that entrepreneurs fill market gaps. A structuration view proposes that the entrepreneur and social systems co-evolve. The presentation of structuration theory offers a robust, and hereto underrepresented, perspective of the entrepreneurial process.     

Empathy-driven entrepreneurial action: Well-being outcomes for entrepreneurs and target beneficiaries

Empathy is a primary driver of social entrepreneurship and entrepreneurial action. However, empathizing individuals can arrive at different conclusions about what targets need. This variance in entrepreneurs' empathy for targets is important because it will help explain the type of interventions they initiate to help targets and the production of a range of benefits and costs for the targets and the entrepreneur. This study builds on and extends the theory of empathic interpersonal emotion regulation to construct an empathy-driven entrepreneurial-action model of well-being. We explore how an entrepreneur's empathy orientation for entrepreneurial action—the patterned way entrepreneurs focus their attention on a target's problems and then seek to enact this position through entrepreneurial action to help the target—shapes the organizing of an entrepreneurial intervention and the likely outcomes. We theorize entrepreneurial orientation of entrepreneurial action manifests as a hedonic paternalistic, counterhedonic, paternalistic, hedonic cooperative, or counter-hedonic cooperative. This empathy-driven entrepreneurial-action model of well-being contributes to the social entrepreneurship literature and inter-personal theories of empathy.     

The Role of Entrepreneurial Passion and Creativity in Developing Entrepreneurial Intentions: Insights from American Homebrewers

The study investigates the role of entrepreneurial passion and creativity as antecedents of entrepreneurial intentions, applying social cognitive theory as an underpinning framework. Specifically, this research focuses on American homebrewing, seen as a potential incubator for entrepreneurs. Results demonstrate entrepreneurial passion having a strong positive relationship with entrepreneurial intentions, even when entrepreneurial self‐efficacy is introduced as a mediator. Conversely, the relationship between creativity and entrepreneurial intentions is mediated by entrepreneurial self‐efficacy, confirming that individuals also need to feel self‐efficacious enough to pursue entrepreneurial career. The findings advance the understanding of nascent entrepreneurship phenomenon within a particular hobby context.     

Theory building in the entrepreneurship paradigm

Ever since Newton's Principia set mathematical models at the pinnacle of a scientific paradigm, scientists in all disciplines—not just the physical sciences—have striven to express their theories mathematically. In the social sciences, mathematical models are more often than not a little more than a Laplacian fantasy. Nevertheless, mathematics is being used more and more extensively by social scientists—none more so than economists and business researchers. This paper focuses on one area of social science, entrepreneurship, and examines the difficulties of trying to use mathematics to model entrepreneurship processes.The entrepreneurial process is a dynamic, discontinuous change of state. It involves numerous antecedent variables. It is extremely sensitive to initial conditions. To build an algorithm for a physical system with those characteristics would be daunting to the most gifted applied mathematician. But when you add the requirement that the entrepreneurial process is initiated by the volition of a unique human being, mathematical modeling may be impossible, because there is “an essential non-algorithmic aspect to conscious human action.” This article argues that today's most prominent mathematical representation of entrepreneurship, population ecology, falls far short of Penrose's specification for a “useful theory.”Some observers believe that the answer to entrepreneurship theory may be found in the chaos theory—a relatively new science that was popularized by Gleick in his book Chaos: Making a New Science. This article explores the chaotic zones of several algorithms that provide alluringly simple representations for the entrepreneurial process. One of them is the fundamental equation for population ecology theory. It shows how under some conditions that equation exhibits some wild, chaotic behavior that gives an observer the feel of entrepreneurship. But it is no more than a mathematical metaphor because the accuracy of the measurements that are needed to observe true scientific chaos in the entrepreneurial process are unattainable in practice.     

The nascent entrepreneurship hub: goals, entrepreneurial self-efficacy and start-up outcomes

Entrepreneurship involves human agency. The entrepreneurial process occurs because people are motivated to pursue and exploit perceived opportunities. It is rooted in the theory that action is the result of motivation and cognition. Therefore, this paper applies elements of goal theory and social cognitive theory to develop a motivational model of nascent entrepreneurial start-up outcomes. The objective of this model is to renew attention on motivational constructs in entrepreneurship research. Additionally, it provides predictive value for the likelihood of new firm founding among nascent entrepreneurs. Results suggest that motivational antecedents among nascent entrepreneurs significantly influence the likelihood of quitting the start-up process versus continuing nascent entrepreneurial start-up efforts.     

Task Conflict,Narcissism and Entrepreneurial Capability in Teams Planning a Business: A Moderated Moderation Approach to Explaining Business Planning Performance

Drawing on the dynamic self‐regulatory processing model of narcissism, we hypothesize that in teams planning a business, task conflict relates positively to business planning performance and that this link is reinforced by the team's narcissism. By integrating aspects of human capital theory, this brighter side of narcissism is amplified where the narcissism is aligned with entrepreneurial capability and the team members' belief in their entrepreneurial capability. The findings of the moderated moderation analysis examining 66 teams of entrepreneurship students support the study's assumptions and provide meaningful implications for social psychology and personality researchers in entrepreneurship.     

The impact of social norms on entrepreneurial action: Evidence from the environmental entrepreneurship context

Using insights from institutional theory, sociology, and entrepreneurship we develop and test a model of the relationship between centralized and decentralized institutions on entrepreneurial activity. We suggest that both decentralized institutions that are socially determined as well as centralized institutions that are designed by governmental authorities are important in promoting firm foundings in the environmental context. In a sample of the U.S. solar energy sector we find that state-sponsored incentives, environmental consumption norms, and norms of family interdependence are related to new firm entry in this sector. Our findings also suggest that the efficacy of state-level policies in the sponsoring of entrepreneurial growth is dependent upon the social norms that prevail in the entrepreneur's environment. We expand entrepreneurship theory and the study of institutions and the natural environment by demonstrating the integral role that social norms play in influencing the creation of new firms and by illustrating the potential effect social norms have on the effect of policy that seeks to encourage environmentally responsible economic activity.     

Chinese immigrants in network marketing business in Western host country context

Many Chinese immigrants start their entrepreneurship business by joining major network marketing businesses in Western host countries. The willingness of these Chinese immigrants to undertake network marketing rests on the influence of the social environment of the network marketing organization. Network marketing specific self-efficacy, social competence and motivation for establishing one's own business are also hypothesized to play an important role in their engagement in entrepreneurial actions. Drawing upon Bandura's social cognitive theory and the immigrant entrepreneurship literature, the present study investigates whether the social environmental influence of a network marketing organization affects the extent to which Chinese immigrants develop the self-efficacy, social competence and motivation to establish their own business and how these variables affect the actions undertaken in the host country. The study is based on the sample of 194 Chinese immigrants in their adopted host country, Australia. The findings of the survey suggest that the social environment within network marketing organizations positively affects self-efficacy, which in turn positively affects the entrepreneurial actions undertaken by Chinese immigrants in conducting their network marketing business. Social environmental influence impacts positively on their motivation to establish their own network marketing business and social competence. However the effects of motivation and social competence on entrepreneurial action were not supported. Theoretical and managerial implications are discussed.     

Exporting Culture: A Strategic Issue for International Competitiveness

This study contributes to expand the knowledge available on immigrant entrepreneurship. Consistent with the notion of entrepreneurship as a process, a qualitative exploration of information and experiences acquired by immigrants in the catering sector was performed to ascertain their role in discovering entrepreneurial opportunities. Our sample consisted of four cases of Latin American immigrants. The findings showed that the discovery process is based on the interrelation established between information per se and the experiences acquired throughout the migration periods. The knowledge acquired in their home country constituted the bases for our study, while that acquired in the host country is supplementary as it fine-tunes, expands, and influences the discovery process. Furthermore, findings revealed that immigrants trust information coming from their social environment and consider it sufficient to take a decision to set up a business. Finally, this study suggests further lines of inquiry.     

Burst Bubbles or Build Steam? Entrepreneurship Education,Entrepreneurial Self‐Efficacy,and Entrepreneurial Intentions

This paper contextualizes the relationship between student's self‐efficacy beliefs and entrepreneurial intentions in the content and pedagogy of the entrepreneurship course. Using the logic of regulatory focus theory, we argue that the nature of the entrepreneurship course—whether theoretically or practically oriented—creates a distinct motivational frame for entrepreneurship in promotion or prevention terms. When coupled with students' self‐efficacy beliefs, this frame can strengthen or weaken their intentions for future entrepreneurial efforts. We test this hypothesis through a survey of 114 students enrolled in different entrepreneurship courses at a major British university. Our results show that higher self‐efficacy is associated with lower entrepreneurial intentions in the theoretically oriented courses and higher entrepreneurial intentions in the practically oriented courses. We draw a number of implications for the theory and practice of entrepreneurship education.     

Navigating the highs and lows of entrepreneurial identity threats to persist: The countervailing force of a relational identity with God

While an economic paradigm has been productive for entrepreneurship, religion has been proposed as an alternative rationality to advance research in our field. To extend a theological turn in entrepreneurship and identity research, our study inductively develops a conceptual model that explains how individuals navigate entrepreneurial identity threats based on the interaction between a relational identity with God (RIG) and an entrepreneurial identity to persist in entrepreneurial action. Our study suggests this can happen when entrepreneurs engage in inter-identity work mechanisms - affirming and humbling - to mitigate these identity threats. Specifically, a relational identity with God acts as a countervailing force to an entrepreneurial identity during times of identity threats to generate inter-identity meaning change, resulting in interidentity stability and entrepreneurial persistence. Through our study, we advance knowledge on the theological turn in entrepreneurship and identity by inductively developing theory on a new religious identity construct (RIG), elaborating theory of inter-identity work by shifting the focus from structural to content changes, and extending theory on entrepreneurial action, persistence, and well-being based on theological rather than economic considerations.     

Do entrepreneurship programmes raise entrepreneurial intention of science and engineering students? The effect of learning,inspiration and resources

Drawing on the theory of planned behaviour, this study tests the effect of entrepreneurship programmes on the entrepreneurial attitudes and intentions of science and engineering students. This is necessary in order to confirm (or disconfirm) conventional wisdom that entrepreneurship education increases the intention to start a business. The results show that the programmes raise some attitudes and the overall entrepreneurial intention and that inspiration (a construct with an emotional element) is the programmes' most influential benefit. The findings contribute to the theories of planned behaviour and education and have wider implications for a theory of entrepreneurial emotions and also for the practice of teaching entrepreneurship.